A Chinese style house centered around a shared courtyard. The term first appeared in the Zhou dynasty (1026-256 BC) meaning "town". A hutong now has the meaning of both an alley or a house. A hutong house is a group of buildings and rooms around a central open air courtyard. These hutong houses originally belonged to single families with complete generations living in the hutong. However after the civil unrest caused between 1931-1948 many hutong neighborhoods deteriorated. From this households split and rented these hutongs creating shared living residences. Many hutongs were demolished during Beijings rapid development, however a core area was preserved to preserve the hutong culture. In modern Beijing hutongs refers to both the neighborhood and the individual house. These hutongs still make up the heart of Old Beijing.